Once More With Feeling
by ice illuser
Summary: "Charles, you have to go find Erik! And sing with him! Or else we're going to have to go through that whole song-and-dance routine again!"


Disclaimer: If I owned X-Men First Class, there would have been no divorce scene, and it probably would have gotten ridiculously fluffy at the end. Since it is an angsty mess at the end, obviously I do not own it. I do not own any of the songs I used either.

A/N: So I watched X-Men First Class, most likely bugged the hell out of everyone around me by squeeing and gasping along with my friends, and then went home to enjoy the explosion of fandom. After listening to Take That's Love Love, the song for the movie (.com/watch?v=qIkFY6TFvc8&feature=relmfu), I couldn't resist writing fic anymore. This is also the extremely late gift fic for my friend world's neighbor. Let's just assume the divorce and Charles getting shot never happened, and that there can be mutants with _really _strange abilities.

"_I __woke up early in my own room,__  
__Wait for my alarm to go.__  
__I think about the things I`ve gotta do,__  
__Damn, my mind is gonna blow."_

Alex groaned as he cracked open an eye. It had been long week, what with averting nuclear disaster, narrowly avoiding Erik and Charles having an epic breakup, sending Shaw's associates to check out Shaw's many safe places, hiding out from the government (not quite a trial as the others given the sheer size of the Xavier Mansion), and attempting to navigate the minefield of tension that Erik and Charles had decided to weave out of long silences and brooding (somehow more difficult than averting nuclear disaster). Alex was therefore willing to give Sean a break for waking him up by singing loudly enough to carry through the walls. Maybe he had cracked under the stress or something, whatever. Alex just wanted to rest (brooding Erik was even _more _intense about training than normal Erik, something Alex had unfortunately realized when Erik had slammed his head into the mat after controlling the new chest piece that Hank had just made to constrict and topple him over).

Alex rolled over in bed, dragging his pillow over his head (cracked or not, he was still going to try to push Sean out of a window if he kept this up), trying to ignore the Sean's warbling.

___"I`m freaking out, about what's ahead,__  
__Maybe I`ll just stay in bed.__  
__'Cause it`s no fun to be the one going out of my head,__  
__So I tell it to myself again,___

_You`re looking for something you can`t find,__  
__If you give it up, you`ll lose your mind.__  
__There`s always something in your way,__  
__What can you say?__  
_

_You`re gonna have good day," _At the last note, Sean suddenly burst into Alex's room, spinning and tapping and bopping his head away, brown hair flying around crazily.

That was _it. _Alex ripped himself out of bed, determined to see how well Sean could survive a two-story drop without the special suit (what? It was training, wasn't it?), only to find himself also suddenly spinning and tapping and bopping and _singing the exact same thing as Sean. _

"_You`re looking for something you can`t find,__  
__If you give it up, you`ll lose your mind.__  
__There`s always something in your way,__  
__What can you say?__  
__You`re gonna have a good day.___

_You`re gonna have a good day.___

_You`re gonna have a good day!"_

As soon as the last note was over, the two of them collapsed on the floor (feeling vaguely nauseous; there had been way too much spinning involved) and stared at each other.

"_What the hell was that?_" Alex demanded, trying not to heave.

Sean shrugged, his face an oddly pale green shade, "I don't know man; I just woke up, and suddenly I was singing and dancing. Can I use your bathroom? I really don't—"

Alex's door banged open again, revealing a Raven whose red hair was sticking up all over the place and looked about ready to rip someone apart, trailed by a Hank who had a crazed look in his eyes and looked fully capable of following through with Raven's wishes.

"_Is this one of your jokes_?" Raven demanded, stalking up to Alex (who was beginning to wonder if Raven's teeth had always been so sharp), "You think waking everyone up—"

Her face abruptly shifted to a more calm expression, her mouth curling up to a sweet and proud smile as she began to stride purposefully around the room and sing,

"_Every day is so wonderful,__  
__And suddenly it's hard to breathe.__  
__Now and then I get insecure,__  
__From all the pain, feel so ashamed._

_I am beautiful no matter what they say,__  
__Words can't bring me down.__  
__I am beautiful in every single way,__  
__Yes, words can't bring me down, oh no, __  
__So don't you bring me down today." _

Hank then began to sing mournfully, his growling voice in stark contrast to Raven's high notes.

"_I can't escape myself.__  
__So many times I've lied, __  
__But there's still rage inside.__  
__Somebody get me through this nightmare, __  
__I can't control myself.__  
__  
__So what if you can see the darkest side of me, __  
__No one will ever change this animal I have become.__  
__Help me believe it's not the real me.__  
__Somebody help me tame this animal I have become." _

To Alex's growing horror, he and Sean both stood up at this point (if anyone puked in his room, he was _so _bringing them into the Danger Room) to stride over to where Raven was standing and _link hands_ with her and start singing _earnestly_ _at_ _Hank_,

"_Cause you are beautiful no matter what they say,__  
__Words can't bring you down, oh no.__  
__You are beautiful in every single way,__  
__Yes, words can't bring you down, oh no, __  
__So don't you bring me down today."_

Hank shook his head slowly as he resumed singing hoarsely,

"_So what if you can see the darkest side of me, __  
__No one will ever change this animal I have become.__  
__Help me believe it's not the real me.__  
__Somebody help me tame this animal I have become._

_Help me believe it's not the real me.__  
__Somebody help me tame this animal I have become._

_This animal I have become."_

Alex wanted to _die _at this point because they were freaking _swaying _while singing,

"_No matter what we do,__  
__No matter what we do,__  
__(No matter what we say)__  
__No matter what we say,__  
__(We're the song that's outta tune)__  
__(Full of beautiful mistakes)___

_(And everywhere we go)__  
__And everywhere we go,__  
__(The sun will always shine)__  
__The sun will always, always shine!__  
__(But tomorrow we might awake on the other side)."_

Hank began to join in as well, linking hands with Sean and Alex, forming a swaying circle singing,

"_'Cause we are beautiful no matter what they say.__  
__Yes, words won't bring us down, oh no, __  
__We are beautiful in every single way.__  
__Yes, words can't bring us down, oh no, __  
__So don't you bring me down today.___

_Don't you bring me down today, __  
__Don't you bring me down today."_

After dragging out the last verse for way, _way _too long, they were finally able to drop each other's hands, Sean rushing to the bathroom, Hank practically turning purple from embarrassment, Alex wanting to crawl back into his bed and pretend this was a terrible, _terrible _nightmare, and Raven just looking puzzled.

"…does someone have a secondary mutation that no one wanted to tell until now?" she finally asked, "Because you know, this could have come in handy with Shaw. Hard to go boom when you're busy singing and dancing."

Hank appropriated Alex's desk, shoving all the magazines off, embarrassment already forgotten in his haste to take notes in a notebook he had drawn out from his lab coat.

"An ability to make people sing and dance? But it's not just singing; the subject sings about his or her feelings. No, that's too general. Ah, they sing about something they feel strongly about! Perhaps repressed thoughts or emotions that have to be said!" Hank began to frantically expostulate out loud, drawing diagrams in his notebook.

"Sean and I were singing about having a good day," Alex pointed out, crawling back into his bed and burying his head in his pillow (maybe he would wake up along with the whole mansion due to his screams of horror).

"Yes, but did you listen closely to what you two were singing? It was about stress! And circumstances being what they are, the house has been rather stressful, but we have been unable to really talk about it—"

"Raven, Alex, Hank, Sean you all have lovely voices, you really do, and all of you are yes, _very _beautiful, but can you please tell why, _you were all singing at 6 in the morning?"_ Charles demanded, walking in, hair curled wildly around his head

Alex groaned and tried to bury himself further into his bed. If Charles also started singing and dancing in his room, he was going to have to somehow claw his own eyes out.

Raven stared at her brother for a few moments before declaring, "You're not singing!"

Charles covered his face with his right hand, "Thank you Raven, for stating the obvious."

"No seriously," insisted Raven, waving a hand in front of Charles' face, "You don't feel like suddenly singing? No sudden twitches of the leg?"

"Obviously not," Charles said irritably, slapping away Raven's hand, "What's going on? All I'm getting from Hank's and Alex's memories are that you all started singing and are appropriately horrified with yourselves."

"Maybe the professor isn't affected because he's a telepath?" Hank hypothesized, head twisting from Charles to his notes and back to Charles again, "Or maybe it's because he needs to sing his repressed emotions at someone—"

"Why aren't all of you downstairs training?" Erik snapped, striding into Alex's severely overcrowded room.

Charles automatically sidled up so close to Erik that their faces were only a few inches apart and twisting his hips began to sing,

"_You bring me right back down to the earth from the promised land.__  
__We're getting close to the centre of the earth with an honest plan.__  
__You'll never be your mother or your father do you understand, __  
__Do you understand?___

_We don't have too much time here, __  
__And time it travels far too fast.__  
__We're not too far we're too near, __  
__Before they take it from our hands.___

_Why don't you teach your heart to feel, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give it all away.__  
__Why don't you teach your heart to talk, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give me give me what I need."_

Somehow at the end of that verse, Charles managed to wrench himself away from Erik (whose eyes had grown so comically large that Raven had broken down into hysterical laughter), and run out the door.

_I am so sorry! _Charles projected through the house, _I have no idea what came over me! …oh! There's another mutant hiding on the grounds! I'll go see if she can stop this—stop laughing Raven! And go make sure Alex doesn't jump out of that window!_

Thalia was small, scared, and it seemed only had a limited understanding of how her abilities worked.

"I-I think that people stop singing when all-when the thing they want to say the most but are-are too scared to say on their own are resolved," she managed to stutter out an explanation, wrapped securely in a red woolen blanket that Charles had brought out and sipping a mug of hot chocolate freshly made by Raven.

"That's fascinating," Charles said sincerely, practically beaming in delight of finding someone with such a unique ability, "I've never seen anyone like you before! But where are your parents?"

Thalia stared at her mug of hot chocolate in silence.

Charles nodded, taking his fingers off of his temple, "I see; you're an orphan, and you ran away from your foster parents when your power manifested."

"I didn't know anyone lived here!" Thalia said frantically, clutching at the blanket, "I thought it was a museum! I'll go away; just don't call the cops!"

"No, no, no!" Charles declared, carefully soothing down the worries in her mind, "If you like, you can stay here. This is a place for people like us."

"I can stay here?" Thalia asked, staring wonderingly at Charles.

"Of course you can; I'll even fill out the paperwork today!"

Thalia chewed her bottom lip and asked suspiciously, "What's the catch?"

"None," Charles said firmly, "Well, besides going to school, doing chores, and training your ability, but that can wait. Raven, why don't you show Thalia around?"

As Raven led the brown-haired girl away, Charles sighed, sat down at the kitchen table, and rubbed his head. He was delighted to have found another mutant, but he had _really _hoped that she could have just ended the effects of her ability when he had found her.

He was happy that Erik had chosen to be the better man and come back home, but things were strained between the two of them. With Shaw gone, and Erik brooding away, well—Erik did say that peace had never been an option for him, so perhaps he didn't want to stay? Despite everything, maybe he still wanted to go and finish what Shaw had started? He couldn't tell if Erik wished he had made a different decision that day on the beach, and he was too terrified of the answer to ask or go digging around in Erik's mind.

"Was that the kid?" Erik asked from behind him.

Charles twisted around to face Erik, holding back his habitual projection of affection (When had it become a habit? It was embarrassing how happy he felt whenever he saw that Erik was still here).

"Yes," he said with a calm he didn't feel, "Her name is Thalia; she has such a wonderful ability!"

"Indeed, and can Thalia perhaps _control _her wonderful ability?" Erik asked, his mouth a thin line.

Charles shook his head, "She doesn't know how. She thinks that it ends after the most important repressed issues are solved."

"Wonderful," Erik said, and then clasped Charles' hands with his own, leaned close in, and began to sing,

"_We'll take you right back down to the earth from the mother land.__  
__This is a first class journey from the Gods to the son of man.__  
__You're at the gates of human evolution don't you understand,__  
__Why don't you understand?__  
__Understand, ___

_We don't have too much time here, __  
__And time it travels far too fast.__  
__We're not too far we're too near, __  
__Before they take it from our hands."_

Charles could feel Erik's mind desperately searching for a way out, and felt it latch onto Erik's belt buckle and manage to tug and drag himself out of the door (while Erik was still crooning and flailing his arms in stark contrast to the horrified embarrassment in his mind). The door slammed shut, cutting off the sound of Erik singing, and leaving an extremely bemused Charles. __

_Erik? _He called out with his mind, but received no answer.

Erik knew he might be scaring the child, but desperate times called for desperate measures (honestly, crooning? He still wasn't sure if he wanted to beg Charles to remove his memory of the incident or for Charles to remove his own memory of it. Or both. They could both literally forget this had ever happened. That sounded especially appealing at this moment).

"There _has _to be a way for you to stop it!" he growled menacingly at Thalia, curled up miserably on a plush green couch.

"I-I think I can sor-sort of control it from-from starting, but-but once it starts, it-it never ends until the most pre-pre-pressing issues are re-resolved," the girl squeaked, drawing herself tighter into the couch as if she somehow manage make herself smaller.

"And what are the _most pressing issues?_" Erik snarled, feeling a few of the screws in the chairs around him loosen.

"Stop scaring the poor kid," Raven cut in, walking into the room and patting Thalia on the head, "Just because you and Charles are having some kind of lover's tiff—"

"_We are not!" _Erik interrupted, eyebrow twitching and a few of the light fixtures above him beginning to sway worryingly.

"If you say so," Raven said disbelievingly, sprawling down on the green couch, "But in terms of issues and the songs everyone was singing, Hank thinks it was the stress around the house, his and my personal appearance issues, and given the way my brother was practically grinding into you—"

Alex, Sean, and Hank all burst into the living room and began to flail their arms around spastically while singing sincerely at Erik,

"_Why don't you teach your heart to feel, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give it all away.___

_Why don't you teach your heart to talk, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give it all away."_

When Raven stood up to join the boys as well, Erik glared at Thalia, "_Explain this," _he intoned murderously.

Thalia shifted in her seat miserably, "I-I think all of the issues are resolved now, ex-except for yours and the-the pro-professor's."

Erik stared as the children sang, bopped their heads, and hugged each other, "You mean that until Charles and I resolve our issues, _they _are going to be _singing and dancing at us_ to?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Thalia mumbled, staring at her feet, "Som-sometimes singing about your-your feelings re-resolves problems?"

Erik dug the heels of hands into his eyes, "If I wanted therapy, I would have sought out a professional," he said bitterly.

"Charles, you have to go find Erik! And sing with him! Or else we're going to have to go through that whole song-and-dance routine again!"

"We've already done it five times by now!"

"I'm sick of hugging Sean!"

"Oh god, here it comes again—"

As the children began to sing and dance again (really, there was an alarming amount of arm flailing and head twitching. On the other hand, at least they were getting their exercise for the day), Charles sighed and sipped his tea.

It would be a simple matter to find Erik; he could always feel out the (comfortably) sharp edges of his mind, but should he? He had always tried to respect people's free choice, be it not wanting to be found or not wanting to stay. If this was the last straw (of all things, honestly), if this is what made Erik finally decide to leave (leave _him)_, Charles would not (he absolutely _would not) _stop him.

It would be so (so very) easy to, but what would that leave him? Some kind of puppet (he had had nightmares about that as a child, and he was determined to _never _see it in reality), and that was not Erik (so determined, so passionate, so obstinate, and he could not bear to destroy that).

He would let him go, even if (no, _when)_ that left him cold and lonely—

_You're projecting, _Erik's voice cut into his thoughts.

Charles jerked and turned around to see Erik standing there, hands stuffed in his pockets, dark eyes focused on Charles.

Charles coughed, and placed his teacup slowly back on its saucer to hide the way his hand was shaking, "I apologize, my friend. If you want to go—"

"I don't want to go," Erik interrupted, stumbling over his own words, "It's like-this place, it's like-like a home now. I don't want to go. I don't-I don't want to leave you. But I know I don't really belong here, not-not with who I am and what I've done. If –If you want me to leave—"

"_No! _No," Charles exclaimed, a broad grin beginning to form on his face, "I want you here. You belong here. With me. _You belong here with me_. I want you here, with me, by my side, running the school _with me_."

A matching smile was beginning to appear on Erik's face as he drew Charles' hands into his own, "Really?" he asked disbelievingly.

_Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes! _Charles projected, along with all his bubbly feelings of joy and happiness that he had been holding back into Erik's mind.

They both laughed and then, with the children dancing in the background, began to sing at each other,

"_We don't have too much time here,__  
__And time it travels far too fast__  
__We're not too far we're too near,__  
__Before they take it from our hands.___

_Why don't you teach your heart to feel, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give it all away.__  
__Why don't you teach your heart to talk, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give it all away.__  
__Why don't you teach your heart to feel, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give it all away.__  
__Why don't you teach your heart to talk, __  
__And give you love love, __  
__Give you love love, __  
__Give me give me what I need__."_

As soon as they finished singing, Erik tipped Charles back in perfect movie star fashion and attacked his mouth with his own. Charles locked his arms around Erik's neck and kissed back with equal ferocity.

The children collapsed to the ground, wincing at the twinges in their arms and necks.

"Oh thank god it's over!"

"I need so much brain bleach. Like right now, stat. Bozo, you can make some, right?"

"You could ask the professor to remove your memories of it instead?"

"My brother seems…preoccupied."

"_These fancy things, will never come in between, __  
__You're part of my entity, here for infinity.__  
__When the war has took its part, __  
__When the world has dealt its cards, __  
__If the hand is hard, together we'll mend your heart."_

Erik muzzily dug his face into Charles' hair and sleepily projected, _Charles?_

_Mm? _Charles thought as he burrowed his face into Erik's chest.

_Why are the children singing again?_

Charles reached up to his temple, concentrated slightly, then yawned and nestled himself more firmly into Erik's side, _Armando is back. Everyone is very happy to see him again. _

_Should we go greet him? _Erik suggested, lazily stroking Charles' back.

Charles shook his head and he wrapped his arms around Erik, _Later._

Erik smiled as he kissed the top of Charles' head and listened to the children sing.

"_When the sun shines, we'll shine together, __  
__Told you I'll be here forever.__  
__Said I'll always be a friend, __  
__Took an oath, I'ma stick it out till the end.___

_Now that it's raining more than ever, __  
__Know that we'll still have each other.__  
__You can stand under my umbrella,__  
__You can stand under my umbrella."_

A/N: So I hope that wasn't too OOC, and that the writing wasn't too jerky (I had issues trying to describe people singing and dancing, sorry. And getting into Charles' head was hard for some reason). Please review/comment! The songs that I used were Click 5's "Good Day," Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful," Three Days Grace's "Animal I Have Become," Take That's "Love Love," and Rhianna's "Umbrella." The dance moves that the children are doing were based off of the background dancers in the "Love Love" music video. Thalia is an OC and is named after the Greek muse of comedy. The title (and to be completely honest the idea) of this fic were taken from the _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ episode of the same title. I was considering using Evanescence's "Imaginary," Avril Lavigne's "When You're Gone" and "Keep Holding On," and Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles," "Ordinary Day," and "Private Radio," but I couldn't really figure out how to fit it in. I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
